Drifter Coming to PS4 and PS Vita

While growing up I was always fascinated by space exploration and I was especially fond of the many video games set in space such as Frontier, Starflight, and Privateer. In fact, it’s long been a dream of mine to take all of what I enjoyed about those sorts of games and try and create my own game in the genre. Drifter is that game, and now I’m happy to say that another dream of mine is being fulfilled now that Drifter is coming to PS4 and PS Vita.

A Massive Galaxy To Explore

Drifter is an open-world, sandbox, space trading game with a procedurally-generated galaxy 100,000 light years across, made up of tens of thousands of star systems to explore and features an original soundtrack by composer Danny Baranowsky. In the game you take on the role of a spaceship captain attempting to eke out a living among the stars by trading goods between star systems, hunting pirates for bounties, mining asteroids for valuable ore, or even becoming a pirate yourself.

In addition to this huge sandbox, Drifter will also feature a hand crafted series of story missions which the player can embark upon to both advance their character as well as learn more about the back story of the Drifter universe.

Player Agency Is Key

In a game as expansive as Drifter, especially because almost everything is procedurally-generated, it’s our job to try and make the game world feel alive and give the player as much choice as possible when it comes to how they might want to play the game. To that end, we are designing Drifter to support a multitude of play styles which cater to as many people as possible.

For those who want to take a more peaceful and serene approach to making their way through the galaxy, we offer things like classic space trading, crafting, salvaging, exploration, and mining. As for those who prefer to use their ship’s weapons to make a living, we offer such things as bounty hunting, combat, and escort missions, and even piracy if you feel like running afoul of the law. In addition to this you’ll also be able to develop your pilot’s skills to get the most out of whatever profession you choose to pursue.

A Dream Fulfilled

On a more personal note, when I was younger and originally thinking about making my own games I remember reading in a magazine about a special PlayStation development kit for hobbyist game developers. That kit was called the Net Yaroze and at the time it made me realize that making games for consoles was within my reach, and I wanted one desperately. So much so I’m sure I probably wore out the pages of that magazine the number of times I read that article. Sadly I was never able to get one so that dream remained just a dream, or so I thought at the time.

Today, thanks to the amazing developer relations people at PlayStation and their support of independent developers such as myself — despite being nearly 20 years later — I’m proud and honored to finally say that I’m making games for PlayStation.

Drifting There

Despite being a huge undertaking these past few years and still under development, Drifter is closing in on completion and early feedback seems to indicate that people are already really enjoying the game. I can safely assume that the finished whole will be even better. That said, I hope that once it finally arrives on PS4 and PS Vita that it is welcomed by the community as a worthy addition to the PlayStation family.

I’m excited to share this news with you and I hope at least some of you are equally excited to learn about Drifter. Please feel free to ask any questions about the game you might have below!

Colin, this looks great. I was a huge fan of Starflight back in the day, and like you always dreamed of making my own game like it. Congrats on fulfilling your dream, I’m looking forward to playing it!

This looks great! Will it have cross play between the PS4 and Vita. I have both and would love to be able to play at home then pick up where I left off with my Vita. Really looking forward to getting this one!!!!

Privateer and Starflight are two of my most favorite games. In fact, I still have my Starflight 3.5″ floppy (along with star chart) and recently just picked up a copy of it for the Genesis. Great, great game.
So my expectations are high for this one. I’m really looking forward to it.

You had my curiosity at Vita, my attention at space game, and my desire to want the game at Cross-Buy. Looks like everything is on a 2-D plane, solving that nasty controls problem maybe? Can we get some more Vita specs? Like if it’s Native Resolution?

Hey! Yeah it’s 2.5D (originally it was going to be top-down but then I realized it looked really great from behind and the rest, as they say, is history) and it should almost certainly be native resolution.

Looks great. I spent huge chunks of time on space flight games in the 90s so I’m def looking forward to this game. Controls look tight, the choices look interesting for jobs… how does the trading take place? is there any character interaction? or all menu driven?

Thanks! The trading happens primarily in stations where you buy and sell goods at the commodity exchange though there will also be special NPCs you can find lurking around who offer goods that are difficult (or illegal!) to obtain elsewhere. I’m working on a NPC communication system so you can actually interact with other ships.

Looks awesome. Ever play Escape Velocity? I loved that game so much, and I’ve been trying to find something like it for years. Your description reads just like what I imagine EV would have evolved into. Definitely on the radar.

I am ready to pre order right now!!! Please can you get your game and your video on the PS4 store (Some games are on there and won’t be releasing until late this year), and then add new videos once or more a month (i.e. video game footage, developer video blog etc..) I want to show this off on my big HDTV so my friends can see it and dream of adventure in space like we did when we were kids.

I now have seen my top 10 game of the year for me. I will be pre ordering as soon as you and Sony make it available.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! I want this game. RIGHT NOW!! It reminds me of Freelancer on PC. I have always wanted to just fly around in space on console. I can do that in this game? Take my money. I need this game. I seriously cannot wait. I look forward to hearing more.

This looks great and I’m looking forward to it. The last good space combat type game I played was Tachyon, something like 15 years ago. Since it’s so big please do what you can to make sure you can transfer saves between the PS4 and Vita. That way we really can spend more time exploring. I’m already kinda planning my strategies, use the small screen Vita time for mining/trading to make some $$ & use the big screen PS4 for the more combat oriented parts so you can see the enemies better…

Are there any plans on changing up the UI a bit? I ask because it seems like it covers way too much real estate on screen. All four corners have either a large circle or a rectangle with info on it. Scaling it down would make it look a lot nicer imo.

Yes, yes, yes! Everything you said in that article is close to my own experiences and love of the space genre. High Fantasy and Modern Day settings are so prevalent in the industry, I’ve been dying for something…otherworldly. Lately, I’ve seen a trend in many developers, from indie to larger studios, moving past the tired tropes and retreads of Medieval fantasy and modern day crime, to start creating more games set in the future. I’m more than just a little excited by this. And I will definitely pick it up for the Vita and PS4.